Jay Byers was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to William Morgan Byers and Mary Joyce Zenger Byers on December 9 ^th , 1956.  Jay grew up in Glendale, WI where he attended public schools Good Hope and Green Tree Elementary Schools, Riverview and Glen Hills Middle Schools, and Nicolet High School.  While in high School, Jay balanced academic pursuits with athletics in Cross Country, Swimming, and Track.

Following high school. Jay attended the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire where he majored in geology and minored in physics.  Jay also participated in Track & Field as a race walker and qualified as an N.A.I.A. All American in both the Indoor 2 Mile and Outdoor 10 Kilometer distances.  Jay won the National 15 Km racewalk in Michigan in near American record time in April, 1979.

Following college, Jay enrolled at the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee to pursue studies and a Master's Degree in geophysics.  Upon graduation, Jay took employment in Los Angeles with Union Oil Company (UNOCAL), where he spent fourteen years as a prospect generator, which required significant travel to all parts of the globe.  During this time, he identified the largest oil field ever investigated by Unocal (Kashagan in the Caspian Sea).

Jay then joined Occidental Petroleum in Bakersfield, CA.  During this time he began to investigate rock properties from seismic data.  After six years and a move to Houston, Jay then took employment with Rock Solid Images, a very small, but cutting-edge geophysical research company, wherein he worked with Turhan Taner, the most significant geophysicist in the industry.  Jay learned much from Turhan which he put into practice.  Following two years at Rock Solid, Jay went into consulting with Devon Energy for 18 months.

Jay then took employment with Chevron in 2005 and spent the next fifteen years in both prospecting and rock properties from seismic.  During this period, Jay developed highly successful methods related to rock properties from seismic.  In 2019, Jay presented his results to the International Society of Geophysics and was congratulated on his amazing results by the audience at-large.

On December 25 ^th , 2015, Jay was diagnosed with rectal cancer.  Over the course of the next 6.5 years, the cancer spread to ten different locations, which is rare as most don't live long enough to experience such diverse metastatic growth.  Finally, Jay succumbed to death from cancer on February 28, 2022.  Jay is survived by his wife of 12 years Jeannine Fourie of West University Place, TX and his daughter Kelsey J.R.P. Byers of Norwich, UK.